With summer rapidly approaching, many of you are likely starting to get quite excited to attend your first Rainbow Gathering. This year, just like every year since 1972, thousands of beautiful humans will come together in a national forest to practice living cooperatively, walking lightly on the land, and loving each other. Every year, hundreds of people attend the Gathering for their first time, and this year in particular I’m excited to be bringing dozens of friends & family to their first, and so it only makes sense to create a little introductory walk-through to help ease things along for everyone 🙂

What is the Rainbow Gathering?

The Rainbow Gathering is a portal to the world of the future that those of us who identify as anarchists, voluntaryists, hippies, etc want to see come to pass. The Gathering is completely free, self-organizing, non-hierarchical, and operates entirely on volunteers, donations, and consensus-based decision-making. The first Gathering was in 1972, and it has since grown to over 100 annual events, the largest of which is the “US National” gathering: July 1st – 7th every year. For a WHOLE lot more details about the Gathering’s history, philosophy, and structure, please read my 5-part series “The Rainbow Gathering: 5 Decades of Beta-Testing Anarchist Society” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), or watch the presentation I gave at this year’s Anarchapulco by the same title.

Where is the 2017 Gathering?

This year’s Gathering will be held in Oregon, in a National Forest as always. The exact location of the Gathering will be decided by consensus at Spring Council, in just under 2 weeks. As soon as the exact location is decided, GPS coordinates & directions will appear at the top of this page

What to bring

What I generally tell people is to bring your usual camping gear, a cup/bowl & spork, and whatever you want to share with everyone else at the Gathering. You can come in with an entire car-load of equipment, or you can simply bring the necessities, and trust that all will be provided for (and it will). For those of you who want a specific breakdown, here’s a guide I found a couple of years ago:

How to get involved

Every single thing that gets done at Rainbow happens because someone volunteered to do it. As with most things in life, the more you put in, the more you get out of it. If you want to have the most life-changing experience possible at the Gathering, I highly recommend helping out often, and in a variety of ways. There is always something to be done, from cutting vegetables to helping someone carry their gear in, from collecting and chopping firewood to digging shitters. Any time you’re bored, just stop by Instant Soup (the 24-hour vegan kitchen where I cook), and we’ll have plenty of ways you can plug in and help us feed all the wonderful people.

How to get water & food

The most important things to bring to the Gathering are your cup/bowl and spoon/fork. As long as you have those things, food and water will just manifest for you left and right. Every evening at 6pm, the whole of the Gathering comes together for a family dinner, where you can try a huge variety of foods from a dozen or more kitchens. At any other time of day, there will be lots of other kitchens serving food to whoever is hungry, like my own kitchen: Instant Soup. We are (usually) the only kitchen around that serves food 24-hours/day. Water is similarly easy to come by, simply find the nearest kitchen, and chances are they will have a water filtration system. One of the goals when choosing a location for a Gathering is a water source to gravity-feed to the kitchens.

How to poop in the woods

At the Gathering, everyone uses trench latrines, called “shitters”, which are approximately 4 foot deep, 8 foot long composting toilets. From any kitchen or camp, there will generally be orange markers leading to the nearest shitter. When you finish, near the toilet paper there will be a can of ash or lime, to be sprinkled on top of your poop to make sure flies don’t get to it and contaminate the food supply.

How to get to/from the Gathering

There are an unlimited number of ways to make your way to the Gathering, from the most simple like driving your own car from your house to the gathering, all the way to train-hopping like my good friend Stxs. Probably the largest number of people get to the Gathering by hitch-hiking or piling into a bus full of hippies and car-pool there. Some of the tools that I highly recommend are the Ride-Share options on Craigslist or Facebook. To use CL, simply go to the closest major city to where you are, go to ride-shares, and make a post explaining where you are and where you’re trying to get to. What is even more successful are the FB Rainbow/Hippie ride-share groups, a few of which I’ll list here for you:

Conclusion:

Of all the events I’ve attended, from festivals to conferences, retreats to seminars, there is nothing I recommend as highly as the Rainbow Gathering. The combination of being a truly anarchist, self-organizing event, being the only one which doesn’t involve money, fossil fuels, cities, or anything else of Babylon, and being the one place where everyone truly remembers that they are, and acts like family, make it a breath-taking experience. Also, based on my understanding of how the universe works, the most effective way to manifest something is to act as if you already have it, and that’s exactly what Rainbow is, thousands of people acting as if they already have a world of freedom, peace, cooperation, love, and abundance.

According to Wikipedia: “A gift economy, gift culture, or gift exchange is a mode of exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This contrasts with a barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are primarily exchanged for value received.”

Eight or nine years, ago I was introduced to the prolific work of Charles Eisenstein. He’s Yale-educated in philosophy and mathematics, but seems to value much more, his direct and personal learning experiences. Charles is a genuinely brilliant person of original thought. He wrote, and freely gives away:

These lofty ideals floated in my head, and sometimes I tried them out in my life and small business. But not until I met Kenny did I see AN ENTIRE LIFE FLOW FROM these principles.

Our conversation below is about an hour. We were outside in the backyard of La Casa Creativa (one of Kenny’s many manifestations), so please pardon music, airplanes and other background sounds during the chat.

You’ll hear how Kenny journeyed from a life he wasn’t all that excited to live, to a near-magical mindset that seems to confidently manifest whatever he needs, and very often wants.

I wonder how the practice of a gift economy, and applying the Law of Attraction, will be received by those who celebrate free markets, capitalism, reason and logic?

Living Outside The Money Matrix

In fact, I was so intrigued that Kenny lives predominantly outside the money matrix, that single question was the basis of our recorded talk, but he shared much more than impersonal theory. He talks about:

how he shifted from selling drugs, to full-time activism

how he shifted from hard core atheism, to practicing the Law of Attraction

how he wants “to be the kind of person that I want to see raising kids to change the world.”

how he stopped fearing the unknown, and also death

how he arranged for Alais Clay to perform at Anarchapulco

“If you live in fear, you’re going to experience the things you fear. I just trust that everything is going to be taken care of, and it always is.”

how an intense mushroom trip dissolved his identity, and exposed his false masks

how he worked as a distributor for GT’s Kombucha

how he re-programmed his brain, from negative to positively manifesting

“I won’t do anything for money, that I wouldn’t do for free.”

how he made a cannabis-infused BBQ sauce, that got him his first catering gig, which opened him to the joy of cooking for others!

how Kenny’s Conscious Kitchen has evolved… to just Kenny

how logic and the brain alone, is not enough to lead to happiness

how the #1 thing we can do to change the world, is to HEAL OURSELVES

Our Chat

Act as if…

See that smooth white rock? It’s a rare possession Kenny holds on to (as he seems to liquidate/give away as much as possible between his frequent travels). At one time, he carried this stone in his pocket, and ran his fingers over the colored words often enough, that they completely faded. It used to say: “Act as if you already are the person you want to be.”

Everyone loves and respects Kenny a great deal. I think it’s because his integrity is so high. What he SAYS, and how you see him LIVE, are aligned. You see principles in action, and I know I’ve been inspired and positively challenged to up my game on all levels since having met him a few months ago.

Two examples of agorism in action:

#1: La Casa Creativa

With the bankrolling help of Nathan and Lisa Freeman (who just gave birth to Spring Equinox baby Ira Belle yesterday!), Kenny organized special housing during Anarchapulco. It was special because of the vision it sprang from. It was special because of the unique blend of folks who stayed together under one beautiful roof, including: Sterlin Luxan, Alais Clay, Truniversal, Derrick Broze, Kurt David Robinson, Benny Wills, Starr O’Hara, an awesome traveler named Stxs, me and others… including That Guy T for one night! It was special because we each were entrusted to set our own price/offering, based on our ability and circumstance. It was special because it was voluntary, agorist and alchemical. [Note from Nathan Freeman: “Kenny paid back the money for the house in full. I’d like people to know that.”]

#2: Kombucha Workshop

In the picture above, the black crate in the right corner had more than a dozen SCOBYs (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) that Kenny gave each person who attended his FREE kombucha workshop this past Sunday at Verde Vegan. He taught us how to start brewing, gave us what we needed to start, and did not charge for the information or the SCOBY. Instead, he trusted us to each offer what we could, or thought appropriate. In his own words in a PM: “I’m doing this, as everything, on the gift economy, so there is no expectation or attachment to anything coming back, and anything that does is great.

I offered to do this post, and give him all the earnings from it. But it wasn’t just to pay for the kombucha workshop…

It is mostly to thank Kenny for refreshing my heart and spirit with his insistence to do so much good in the world. It is mostly to honor the brave social choices he makes, that help him maintain such a high and positive vibration in a world that seems to prefer complaints over solutions, and grumbling over gratitude. Talking with an adult who is free of cynicism and pessimism: (1) is a rare occurrence; and (2) hydrates your soul.

In that way, Kenny Palurintano is a cool drink of coconut water. If you’re inspired to, please help him reach his goal. He is happily open to Bitcoin gifts: 15bNwnDeT8TfgCMWjvHm4tAjaCArSyNAoN

Fancy a chat… or prefer to be listened to, lavishly? I’m available by appointment HERE.

There aren’t many places in Mexico where you can get fresh-squeezed juices, vegan ice cream, superfood smoothies, and a full menu of vegan takes on popular dishes from around the world… all with Bitcoin! Enter Verde Vegan, a delightful little restaurant & juice bar, located a few minutes away from the traffic, and operated by conscious, freedom-minded, Bitcoin-loving locals 🙂

The Food

The restaurant offers quite a wide variety of vegan delights, and I could talk about them all day, so I’m just going to run through the menu categories and give a little bit of information about each one.

Drinks: The beverage menu includes 5 juice blends (though you can always get a specific juice made as well), and 20 smoothies, starting at just 40 pesos ($2). They also offer a variety of organic teas, coffee, and house-made nut-milks. My favorite: The Maniac (Peanut butter [made in-house], cacao powder, banana, cacao nibs, cinnamon, vegan milk)

Breakfast (Served all day): From Mexican classics like chilaquiles & enfrijoladas to the ubiquitous french toast & crepes, the breakfast menu has a little bit of everything. With the most expensive item coming in under $6, they’re all an amazing deal as well. My favorite: Quinoa Pancakes (soon to be buckwheat! Try them with strawberry marmalade & banana ice cream)

Tacos: Right now there are 6 types of tacos, and the new version of the menu will include even more. Chorizo, al pastor, portabello, mixed veggies, the variety of flavor available is astounding, and with homemade tortillas, you really can’t go wrong. My favorite: Hummus in Lettuce (lebanese style tacos with cucumber, tomato, radish, pickles, and hummus served on crisp romaine lettuce)

Mexican Favorites: This is a relatively new section of the menu, to the point that it isn’t even listed on the paper menus right now. It includes tostadas, enchiladas rojas & suizas, sopes, and huaraches, with more items to appear on the new version of the menu. My favorite: Enchiladas Suizas (4 corn tortillas filled with black beans, with the most divine salsa verde, a creamy potato cheese, and sprinkled with a crumbly almond cheese [pictured above with a Maniac smoothie])

Salads: This is the first category that is getting a major overhaul with the new menu, these all come in a small ($4-5) or large ($5-6) option, and they are all amazingly filling. From super greens to that fusion, from mediterranean to pears & walnuts, these salads have it all! My favorite: Pitagoras (Lettuce, parsley, mint, cucumber, tomato, black olives, quinoa, and tahini dressing)

Sandwiches: This category is being almost completely switched around for the new menu, where an Italian (including “mozzarella” and a reuben will be joining the lineup, along with a possible un-tuna sandwich as well. Each sandwich comes on your choice of Ezekiel Bread, or house-made gluten free bread (tomato or olive & onion), and comes with a small salad. My favorite: The Vital (Shredded carrot & beet, hummus, chard, avocado, and tomato [on the olive & onion bread])

Burgers: The only burger carrying over from the old menu is the portobello, and a variety are being added, including a sweet potato based patty, a quinoa based patty, and the black bean & veggie patty. My favorite: The black bean & veggie (it doesn’t have a name yet, and I’m biased since I created it, but damn is it tasty! Served with sauerkraut, sprouts, tomato, onion, lettuce, avocado, and my own take on 1000 island dressing, it’s a flavorstravaganza [pictured above])

The Store

Did I mention that the restaurant also has a organic grocery store with a pass-through door? Verde Pistache is the only place in Acapulco with much of an organic selection, including spices, superfood powders, grains & cereals, meat alternatives, body care products, cleaning supplies, and much more. Pistache is the only place around to find things like (real) pickles, fennugreek, organic soap & toothpaste, etc.

The store features a variety of local products like dehydrated beet chips & mole sauce, as well as imports like Ezekiel Bread, organic laundry soap, nutritional yeast, and super-food powders that are not available (or much more expensive) anywhere else in town. They are always expanding and bringing in more wonderful things, like the organic ketchup that appeared between my leaving on Friday and writing this article on Sunday.

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I’ve been coming down to Acapulco for the last three years to attend Anarchapulco. The conference has changed my life in many ways, and I’ve connected with many amazing humans, both living in Acapulco and in town for the event as well. The first year of the conference, I was staying at La Copacabana, the venue for the conference, since it was all-inclusive and my budget was rather limited. The only real downside to doing that way was that I only ate anywhere but the hotel 1 time during my visit. The second year of the conference, I spent almost a month in Acapulco and discovered Verde Vegan, and it immediately became my regular hangout. Over the week of the conference last year, Verde Vegan was ALWAYS packed with anarchists, and the community has built a strong relationship with the owners & employees of this wonderful little hidden gem.

In 2017, the collaboration between VV & Anarchapulco is stepping up to another level entirely. For its third year, the conference has moved to its third venue, El Mundo Imperial, the largest & most bad-ass hotel & resort in town. The Imperial is in the Diamante region of Acapulco, near the airport & far away from the busy-ness of the Costera (think of “the Strip” in Las Vegas), which is an all-around great thing… except that it’s a 30-minute drive from Verde Vegan. This sounds like an issue right? It would be, except that the organizers of Anarchapulco & the owners of Verde Vegan have reached out to the Imperial, and have locked in a satellite location for the restaurant, on-site at the venue itself, just downstairs from the speakers will be.

For the conference, there will be a limited version of the menu, with slightly higher prices (due to additional overhead… still cheaper than the US or the other restaurants at the venue), and they will not have access to an oven at the satellite location. There will be an increased focus on quick service, while maintaining the same high standards for taste & ingredient quality. If you’re used to eating at vegan & organic restaurants in the US, Canada, or Europe, prepare to have your mind blown when you get the same quality of food for a fraction of the price. The largest, most expensive smoothie, still comes in under $6 US.

I’ve been in Acapulco for almost three weeks now, and I’ve been down here every other day or so, enjoying the vibe, the food, and using the wi-fi to get plenty of work done 🙂 After talking about it quite a bit last year, I’m finally getting to plug in with them as well; this past week I started volunteering in the kitchen 3 days a week, helping them create new menu items, and learning their recipes for the conference (where I will be helping run the satellite location). This is really exciting for me because Amparo, their head chef & nutritionist, cooks in a very similar way to myself, and I’m finally getting some full immersion in spanish (the one downside to spending your time in Mexico with anarchists from the US & Canada).

I’m also helping them build their online presence, getting them listed on all of bitcoin, vegan, and general restaurant finders. Verde Vegan and it’s suppliers represent the whole of the health-food movement in this part of Mexico, and I want to do everything I can to help that reach more locals, and ensure that travelers can easily find this hidden gem. Please like/follow them on Facebook & Twitter, and if you’ve eaten here before (yes I’m typing this article in the restaurant right now), please leave a review on HappyCow, TripAdvisor, or Yelp

When it comes time for Anarchapulco, you know where to find me, and we’ll be offering my home-brewed kombucha as well. I brought a culture all the way from Oregon, after experiencing the painful lack of fermented foods in Acapulco last year, and it’s quickly growing. I’ve got 3 SCOBYs so far, but that’s a story for another post 🙂

a new artichoke dish we created on Friday

Thanks for reading, and remember to follow me on Steemit to catch all of my articles about traveling the world, delicious vegan food, philosophy, and much more 🙂

Last week, I hit the road with my cousin from Portland to Denver, heading out to catch a series of events with We Are Change Colorado. This was the first time I’ve done the trip between OR & CO without being in a hurry to get to an event, so we spent 6 days working our way east, camping and checking out some of the beautiful nature in between. Here’s the run-down of my journey, featuring lots of photos and my recommendations for the next time you’re traveling the same path.

Day 1: Crossing Oregon

We got out of Portland at a decent hour, and immediately pushed to get some good distance for the day. We skipped Multnomah Falls as we had both been many times, and it was quite busy, and probably would have killed our momentum a bit. I HIGHLY recommend checking it out, and the side-trails just about a mile down from the main tourist location lead to even more beautiful waterfalls. A little further down the freeway, we stopped at the Washington Stonehenge, a beautiful structure just off I-84, that most people have no idea is there.
This thing is such an awesome piece of construction, and it offers AMAZING photo opportunities, especially around sunset. The thing that is not so cool about this Stonehenge is the intention behind it; it was built as a memorial for local troops who died in WWI. The centerpiece of this monument is a plaque that reads (when translated from double-speak & euphemisms) “We immortalize the sacrifice of these poor souls who were tricked into fighting for the profit & power of others, in order to ensure that more young men will be easily tricked into killing & dying for the benefit of those same parasites”
Besides visiting the henge, we drove straight through the day, ending up Boise just before sunset. I had found a campground for us on Free Campsites, so we drove through downtown, through the suburbs, and into the hills. The campsite was just a couple of miles down a road that my cousin’s Corolla could barely make it down. The site was absolutely gorgeous, with a wonderful view west across all of Boise.
Setting up camp took a little while, mostly because the ground was too hard to drive stakes into. About the time I began drifting off to sleep, the wind decided to roll in; suddenly the rocks holding down the corners of my tent were no longer cutting it. I ended up having to get up, go to the car, and bring over everything that I own in order to weigh down my tent to the point that it would stop collapsing on me. Even with all the excitement, I still felt energized & well-rested when I woke up that morning.

Day 2: Meandering around Idaho

Our first day of actual sight-seeing started off with Balanced Rock, and on the way out to it we drove past a number of “geological sites” and “historical sites”. Upon backtracking to look at some of these, we were a little let-down to find that most were simply a pull-off from the highway with a big sign talking about something in history that happened in the area.
After monkeying around in the rocks for an hour or so while my cousin strolled around (that elevation change catches people off-guard), we headed into the nearby town of Buhl to visit the public library so we could charge electronics, use wi-fi, and come up with a plan. From there we wandered over to Twin Falls, ID, got some veggie burgers in town, and heading to the nearby Shoshone Falls.
Have I mentioned how much I love waterfalls? This place was beautiful, and not too busy. We had an entire area of picnic tables to ourselves to eat and burn one, then headed over to take in the scenery. I made some calls to friends in Utah, making some plans for the next couple of days, and then realized the fun that can be had with a phone camera’s “panorama” feature and weird angles.
Our plan was to next go check out the nearby ice caves and mammoth cave, but they were already closed for the day, so we headed over closer to the Utah border and found our campground for the night.

Day 3: Visiting SLC, land of the Mormons (queue South Park song)

The campsite we ended up with at the end of day 2 was quiet, well-forested, and next to a river, making for an amazing night’s sleep. Better yet, we got up that morning and headed straight for Lava Hot Springs to soak and relax for a couple of hours. After the springs, into Utah we went. The plan was to meet my friend @firstwords when he got home that evening, so we figured we’d knock out the tourist-y stuff in Salt Lake City that day. By the time we made it to the city, it was early afternoon and we were both very hungry, so we decided to land atThe Pie Hole, a local pizza joint that accepts Bitcoin.
It’s become a regular thing for me, when approaching a town, to check online and see where all the local businesses that accept BTC are. As soon as I clicked on Pie Hole’s website and saw that they offer a daily vegan pizza, I immediately know where we’d be eating that day. The place has an awesomely low-key, retro vibe to it, arcade games in the back and everything. That day’s vegan slice was the “Mellvar”: spinach, bell peppers, onions, carrots, and cilantro with a hummus spread; let’s just say I started with 2 slices and went back for 2 more. The employees were both extremely friendly, and the BTC process went much easier than it has in many places. I highly recommend this spot to anyone passing through SLC and looking for some delicious food, whether you are looking to spend BTC or not.
With our appetites sated, we started moving around the city, checking out a variety of the gardens & other tourist spots. First up was the Gilgal garden, a small park filled with sculptures and stone pathways engraved with bible verses. The range of statuary was extensive, from the broken-up body of a giant, to a sphinx with the head of Joseph Smith on it.
Next up was a visit to Temple Square, at which point my camera died, which is quite unfortunate. The architecture is well-documented online, but the things that really spoke to me and I wanted to share were the Bible quotes all over the walls in the basement of the “North Visitor Center”, all about being of service to others and doing the right thing. I just realized how interesting it is that those are downstairs, tucked away in one area… This same building, on the top floor has a BEAUTIFUL mural of the cosmos.

There was so much beauty in the Temple Square (statues, paintings, architecture), but it’s hard to be there without your skin crawling more than a bit, seeing the amount of energy that so many people are pouring into that belief system. After the square, we headed out of town to meet up with friends, and ended up talking well into the morning.

Day 4: Hiking in the foothills

It was nice to sleep indoors for a night, and in the morning we all headed out into the hills for the day, to do some hiking and soak in that beautiful nature. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but I LOVE trail-running, and the place we went was just perfect for it, so I would sprint out until I start feeling winded, then wait for everyone else to catch up. I forget the name of the “National” forest we were in, but there was a river running right through it, and on the other side of the highway had beautiful cliffs and rock structures to look out at.

Day 5: The International Peace Garden… and clouds of Mayflies

After saying our goodbyes to friends (and trading their housemate some Bitcoin for FRNs), we went back into SLC. This time we had lunch at The Blue Nile, an Ethiopian restaurant, splitting one of the amazing vegetable combos that they all seem to have, and meeting up with my friend Brett. After eating, we made our way to the International Peace Garden, and spent quite a few hours wandering around there and taking in all the art & plants from around the world.
After wandering the park for most of the afternoon, we headed out to Utah Lake to set up camp for the night. The mile-long road from the highway down to the lake had a mile-long cloud of mayflies hovering about 10 feet above it, as did the entire beach of the lake. The sound of trillions of bugs was a little disconcerting, especially before we confirmed that they were not mosquitoes. While gathering firewood, we found quite a few black widows in the area, and about the time we headed to our tents, we got to listen to a rodent of some kind scream for a few minutes as it was killed by (presumably) a snake… a macabre lullaby for sure.

Day 6: Entering Colorado; sacred geometry on street-corners and blasting off in the forest

The sunrise on Utah Lake was magnificent, and we woke up motivated to make some good distance again, since we were now just 1 day from the first event in Denver. Down the the I-70 we went, and it was time to cross into Colorado again. We pretty much drove straight through to Glenwood Springs, a nice little town (where Doc Holladay died). We decided to stop so we could charge & wi-fi at the library, walk around town, and get something to eat. We had lunch at The Grind, and WOW!, their falafel burger was absolutely amazing, quite possibly the juiciest falafel I’ve ever eaten.
After eating, we stopped into a local crystal shop, poked our heads into a dispensary ($18+/gram… just ridiculous), and prepared to roll out. The campsite I had found for the night was only about 25 miles east, and there was only one remotely tricky part in finding it:
The site itself was right up against the Colorado River, and there were a good 10 camps altogether, 3 of which were occupied. We set up camp, had some food, and I spent about an hour gathering firewood. The “wood” was mostly dried vines, small twigs, and a few actually branches, so needless to say it took longer to gather than to burn. Once I was satisfied with the fire, I pulled out the little pouch of 5-MeO a friend had given me, and sat in prayer for a few minutes. Whenever taking in psychedelic medicines, it is VERY important to create a container for yourself, call in the support, guidance, and healing you are looking for, and give thanks to the medicine and everyone who helped it come to you.
As soon as I took my first hit off the pipe, I started to get fractals and other visuals like I’m used to with psychedelics. After the second hit, my body began to feel disconnected from my mind, and I was just able to take a third hit before I had to lay back down on the dirt. I don’t really remember any specific details of what I saw, but I remember them all being things I had experienced in this life, but with the overwhelming sense of being at home, cuddled up nest-like. This was the farthest I’ve ever gone with DMT, and I feel like I was about to go even further down the rabbit hole, but I got that feeling like I might lost control of my bowels, and as soon as my mind connected with that and I started to clench, my trip started winding down. I spent the next hour meditating with the fire, then went into my tent for the night, and wrote about 3 pages before going to sleep 🙂

Day 7: Hello Denver! Just in time for some amazing live music

Waking up right next to the Colorado River… you’ve got to try it. There was still enough firewood piled to get warmed up for the morning, and after breaking down camp, it was time to finally head into the big city. We spent the day walking around downtown Denver, stumbled across the Topless Parade, hung out down by a creek for many hours, and visited a couple of my friends, before heading to the Liberty Lodge for the night’s festivities.

Never in my life has there been an election so full of potential to make the world better. This year, for the first time in my life, I’m excited about the election, and filled with optimism. At this point, you’re probably starting to think that I’m crazy, with words like “wall”, “scandal”, and “rigged” coming to mind. Let me lay out the key reasons I feel this way.

Communications Technology

Our communications abilities are greater now than they have ever been, meaning more people than ever are learning about the scandals, cover-ups, and lies (which are always present in elections). The great thing is that this facet of global affairs just keeps getting better every day. Just think (or remember) how difficult it was to get people informed and activated before cell phones and the internet, or even with the earlier versions of these things.

Bernie Sanders

I’ve heard quite a few people call Bernie Sanders the Ron Paul of the left, which I disagree with as far as their political or economic beliefs, though I can see the similar roles they have played in the political scene.
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In my travels, I can’t count how many times I’ve heard someone attribute their “waking up”, their knowledge of the underlying issues we’re facing, to Ron Paul’s campaigns and the way he was locked out. Bernie Sanders likely has more followers than Ron Paul did, especially with the under 35 crowd, the people most readily accepting of new ideas. Although Sanders wasn’t trying to spread the messages of freedom & peace like Dr. Paul was, his followers have still just seen the reality of the system laid out for them, are feeling disenfranchised with the system, and are more ready to hear about alternatives than ever before.

The TPP

This “trade agreement” is a shining example of the expansion of fascism in global politics over the last century. This document is a clear declaration of war against the human race and the Earth we live on. It’s having the amazing effect of uniting the environmentalist, labor rights, freedom of information, food justice, et al. movements towards a common goal. This is the perfect common ground to bring people’s attention to the inherent structural issues we are dealing with.(Photo Source)

Hillary Clinton

Finally, we have the combination left-right ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. This pair was clearly chosen to lock Clinton in by getting the votes of right-wingers that don’t support Trump. What a perfect example of the oligarchy that is US government, as well as a great way to introduce people to things like the CFR. Best of all, this gives us a wonderful chance to (jokingly) ask for open & honest tyranny, a 1-party system, and the person who will take the most rights away. Talking about things like: “the best of both worlds, anti-abortion AND pro gun-control”, “supported by the universities & media AND the oil companies”, and “how divisive and frustrating the 2-party system was, how much simpler it will be just voting for the Tyranny Party”.(Photo Source)

How to capitalize on these opportunities

However you approach spreading the message of freedom & peace, here are a couple of the keys I’ve learned to avoid people’s cognitive dissonance and defensive responses.

Stick to the principles:It’s easy for conversation to get bogged down in the euphemisms, the drama, and the distractions of the political realm. An easy way to avoid this, and make sure you’re getting your point across, is to always bring it back to the principles and consistent application of them. The principles I most resonate with, and that nobody ever seems to disagree with (though they often don’t apply consistently) are:

You own yourself

It is wrong to use force, or the threat of force, except in self-defense

All agreements between reasoning humans should be voluntary

No group can have rights greater than the rights of the people who make it up

Ask Questions: Whenever you try to tell somebody anything that doesn’t fit their belief systems, you are going to hit a wall. If you ask them questions that get them to agree with you, all of a sudden you’ve jumped right past those defenses. Here are those same principles laid out as questions:

Do you believe that you own yourself, that you own your body, that you own your labor?

Would you agree that it’s wrong to use force, except in self-defense

Do you believe that a person should be subject to contracts they didn’t agree to?

If a group of people get together, does it give them extra rights? For example, if it’s wrong to use force, but 3 people get together and decide to use force against someone, does it become right?

Offer non-violent solutions & alternatives: For anything that the state handles, through it’s violent means, there is always a more peaceful, efficient, and high quality solution available. There is always an alternative that you can act on in your own life, a way you can take responsibility for the things you want to change, and BE THE CHANGE. Here are just alternatives for things that people often depend on the state for:

This is the 3rd batch of sweet potato & bean taco filling that I’ve made in the last couple of weeks, this time creating a huge batch so a bunch can get frozen for later.

Just throw some filling & sauce in a tortilla with a bit of shredded lettuce and you’re good to go!

Sweet Potato Veggie Tacos with "Purple Cheezy Guac"

Print Recipe

**Please note: this was a HUGE batch of filling I made, do about 1/4 of this unless you're looking to feed a group or freeze a bunch like I was. Also, I made this for someone who is allergic to Onion & Paprika; both of these things would go very well in the dish. I'd dice two red onions and add a tablespoon of smoked paprika.**

**Please note: this was a HUGE batch of filling I made, do about 1/4 of this unless you're looking to feed a group or freeze a bunch like I was. Also, I made this for someone who is allergic to Onion & Paprika; both of these things would go very well in the dish. I'd dice two red onions and add a tablespoon of smoked paprika.**

“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

I go back and forth a lot when it comes to money in general, fiat currencies, buying & selling, charging for my services, etc.

For many years before I started this chapter of my life, I spent a lot of my time concerned with money. I worked full-time, I sold… products on the side, I was always ready for a way to make a profit on a deal. During these years, I spent most of my free time drinking, getting stoned, playing video-games, binge-watching TV & movies, and having a string of unhealthy relationships (both romantic & platonic). I hold much experimentation with psychedelics, failed suicide attempts, and other near-death experiences responsible for the shift out of this.

When I began to pay attention to what was happening in the world again was when I started a relationship with an amazing woman I had met at my local mmj dispensary. She opened my eyes to many things, like GMOs & fluoride, and she constantly asked me questions that helped me re-frame so many things that I had long thought of as things that were wrong with me. I quit my job when she, her brother, and I started our own medicated BBQ sauce & honey business.

When things fell apart between the three of us, I removed most of my focus from the making/having/spending of money, and focused all my energy on trying to change the world. I quickly went to a non-GMO diet, cutting out processed foods. Next I created a couple of FB pages, getting 1000s of likes quickly by posting poignant memes in busy comment threads on large pages. As that grew tiresome, I attended my first protest, the 2013 Million Mask March, and realized that we had to be out making a positive change, not complaining about the problems we saw. So, I proceeded to help organize a string of events called #OpSafeWinter.

A few months into my organizing career, a couple of friends introduced me to the Law of Attraction, through the work of Abraham-Hicks, and that old saying, “be the change you want to see in the world” resonated with me very strongly. I began focusing all of my energy on myself, my happiness, my healing, my communication. I decided I would not work again for someone I didn’t actually support, and quickly got a job at Bob’s Red Mill, a non-GMO, employee-owned company. I made a clear budget for myself while I was there: 25% rent & utilities, 50% food so I could share with lots of people (all from the organic co-op 20 blocks away, so blessed!), 25% on improving myself. I ended up being the organizer of Portland’s 2014 Million Mask March, and in doing so decided to focus my my money on the event, spending over $3000 in a couple months on printing flyers & brochures, getting 500 Guy Fawkes masks, food, and creating ~450 info bags (Alais Clay’s “Reverse Hypnosis“, MC Xander’s “Eyeopeness”, Adam Kokesh’s “FREEDOM!“, and the documentary “Owned & Operated“). [Just an aside, the 2 CDs and the DVD were all burnt and Lightscribe labeled one at a time.]

After putting on that event, I decided to focus back on myself again, but this time in treating myself as well. I got an E-bike to make my commute to work better, I cut down from 40 hours/week to 32, I signed up for an $500 workshop, followed by a trip to Mexico for Anarchapulco! When I got back to Portland, I knew it was time for some major changes, and just 3 months later I quit my job, gave away & sold almost all of my belongings, and packed a backpack to hit the road.

Just in the last 11 months since I started traveling (wow, it seems like a LOT more time has passed than that), things have really shifted a great deal. When I left for the Rainbow Gathering, I brought with me about 600 pounds of food to donate, $200 cash, my backpack & day-pack with everything I needed to live, and 2 boxes of crystals to give away. For the following months, I had almost no interaction with money at all, reclaiming a lot of food, occasionally working a trim-job for a day to get me through the next few weeks, volunteering at every festival I attended, and just generally being of service, meaning people wanted me around.

Towards winter solstice last year, I had a realization that my resistance to money was acting as a resistance to abundance in general, and decided to start changing things. Almost immediately, I was made an offer to cook an 8-course meal for a 20+ person Christmas dinner. Around the same time, I was getting some guidance & assistance from an amazing friend Andy Harrison, who made a point about every dollar that comes to me making the world better, by the nature of what I have dedicated my life to being and doing.

Shortly after this, I found myself at the second Anarchapulco, where I was cooking food & making smoothies for a building full of anarchists, happily accepting donations towards the food, and cooking large meals & selling to-go meals on a pay-what-you-want basis. A brother I met while down there this year just refused to get food from me, unless I set a price for him, which I was HIGHLY resistant to (My feeling is that I don’t know your financial situation or how much you are going to like the food. I want you to have the experience I am sharing, then decide what, if anything you want to give me in return), and though I did end up giving him a price, we never actually made the exchange. I was also offered a few things like being a personal chef, doing online cooking classes, and being given money to keep doing what I’m doing… most of which I haven’t really taken action on because of my lack of surety here.

I listen to people on every end of the spectrum when it comes to money and commerce, and I know that in the next few years, I plan on finding myself on a piece of land somewhere with a village of aligned people who want to share with & take care of each other, and it won’t be a concern. In the meantime, what to do? I know that I love the feeling of giving away a bunch of food, and letting people give me tips/donations if they want to; I know that it feels good to show up at an event and give my all without any expectation of something in return, and it feels even better when I do end up getting something in return; I know that it doesn’t feel quite right to set a price to something; I know that it doesn’t feel good to keep someone from having something because of a lack of money.

For the moment, I’m in the place of continuing to give all that I can, and just being sure to remain open to whatever the universe sends back my way, either from the people receiving or in some other way. I have also finally gotten comfortable enough with the idea of asking for help from others to create a crowdfunding page (something that has been next-on-the-list for many months now).

I made this cheesecake for the first time at the StarWater 4/20 party at the Liberty Lodge in Denver, and it was a HIT! The day I made that first run I had been unable to find macadamia nuts, so I used cashews. Hazelnuts & almonds are also options, but macadamias are the best option to get the right taste and creaminess.

Alright folks, since it’s an election year, I am going to make one post addressing the idea of voting. I’ve already started having some of these conversations come up when I tell people that I do not, and have never voted. They like to come back with that “If you don’t vote, then you have no reason to complain” idea, which is just plain nonsensical. I’m not going to be delving into that idea too much, but there are 2 things I will be addressing:

Your vote DOES NOT matter

The state is institutionalized violence

There is no way to accomplish a moral end using immoral means

1. Your vote DOES NOT matter

To start off, let’s ignore the fact that the state is completely immoral & violent; let’s pretend that “democracy” is an acceptable way of making decisions for 300+ million people, and simply look at the way the system is operating right now. I’m just going to run through a couple points that break down how much a person’s vote actually count in the USA.

The Electoral College:

The electoral college is basically a convoluted game that was created to keep the land-owning, white, protestant men as the only people able to make decisions for the US government.

Each state is given a number of representatives based on its VAP (Voting Age Population), meaning the number of representatives a state has comes from the number of people over 18 who live there, regardless of citizenship, eligibility to vote, or whether or not they have ever registered to vote.

When someone casts a presidential ballot, they are not actually voting for a candidate, they are voting for a party, and specifically for that party’s elector. The electors have no obligation to vote for the person people picked on their ballot either.

When votes are counted, each state tallies up theirs and has a “winner”, the person who will receive all of that state’s electoral votes, even if they only got a portion of the population’s vote.

California has 55 electoral votes (more than 10% of the total), and if someone receives more votes than any other candidate in California, they receive those 55 electors. Even if they didn’t even receive a majority of the actual votes (35% Candidate A, 30% Candidate B, 25% Candidate C, 10% Others).

Only Nebraska & Maine actually allocate electoral votes based on the popular vote instead of “winner-take-all”

Just as an example, if someone got the most votes (remembering that it doesn’t even have to be a majority, and this never takes into account all the people who voted for nobody), in just 11 states, they would have the electoral votes needed to win the election, even if they got zero votes in the other 39 states. (The 11 being California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey)

Because of the way that electoral votes are decided, the higher population the state you live in has, the less your vote matters. It takes almost 4 times as many people in California to get 1 electoral vote as it does in Wyoming.

The 2-Party System:

The false dichotomy of left-right keeps people trapped in a mental box, thinking that the world can be broken down into a simple A or B choice.

The parties create the illusion of a difference between them by focusing the debate on topics like gay marriage, abortion, religion, and other things that are 100% personal choice, and should have nothing AT ALL to do with government.

The parties completely agree and strive towards the same major goals: keeping the 2-party system, continuing the flow of tax revenue, expanding government power, and using their power to accomplish the desires of the agricultural-pharmaceutical-military-industrial complex.

The 2 parties control the debates, keeping anyone else from even appearing before most voters.

Both parties are owned by the same corporations & investors, including the 6 media companies, thus ensuring that they will have the money to overwhelm any outsider’s campaign

The parties “gerrymander” to create the districts in a state, manipulating things to control which party gets the representatives for a state. (See image)

The Power of the Media:

Most people learn everything that they know about candidates, initiatives, and everything else to do with government from the media.

This means the average American’s opinion on Trump, Sanders, Clinton, etc. is based almost exclusively on what they have heard from that person’s (or their opponent’s) advertising campaign.

Groups like the GMA spend millions of dollars on campaigns to convince people to vote a certain way. In California in 2012, Washington in 2013, and Oregon & Colorado in 2014, this organization spent millions of dollars on widespread radio, TV, newspaper, and billboard ads over the week(s) before election day in order to trick everyone who wasn’t aware of the truth, that GMO labeling would mean terrible things for them personally.

2. The State is Institutional Violence.

Let’s say all the corruption & inherent controls in the USA & its voting system are gone. What gives someone the right to say, “I believe people should (or should not) do this thing, therefore I believe that a group of people should use violence and the threat of violence to force others to do (or not do) this thing”? If you think the state does not use violence and the threat of violence to accomplish everything it does, just ask yourself how it responds to something as harmless as smoking weed (in most places), not getting the proper “permit” or “license” to do or sell something, or not paying “property taxes” on land that you have bought and paid for, inhabit, and care for.

Let’s look at a hypothetical:

Contact you: “Hi there, we’ve decided that you owe us money for something you did (or did not do)”

Contact you again: “Hey, us again. We’re gonna need that money soon, or bad things may start happening. We’d really hate if you made us do bad things.”

Contact you again: “Hi. Bad things are starting now”

Do any number of minor bad things to you, including revoking your “driver’s license”, charging you “fines”, “garnishing your income” (read: forcing your employer to steal money from you, for the state), etc.

Contact you again: “So that was a little taste of the bad things we can do, how about you just give us our money and we can all move on with our lives in peace… because if we can’t all move on, things are going to get much worse for you”

Do any number of major bad things to you, generally involving some combination of: sending men with guns to your house, having those men violently kidnap you and keep you in a concrete box, going through all your personal belongings (and phone records, texts, and emails), stealing your property, convicting you of a “crime” (thus limiting your ability to find work, housing, or a loan)

This isn’t even addressing the violence that states commit against people outside of their boundaries through mass murder (which they call war), instituting puppet governments, setting “embargoes”, etc.3. There is no way to accomplish a moral end using immoral means

I don’t really know how to explain this in a simpler way. You cannot get to a right by committing a wrong.

If you want to change ANYTHING in the world, the way to do so is by taking responsibility for your own life & actions, and CHANGING it. By voting, you are giving up your right to be heard, because you are making a choice to keep things the way they are. Once you’ve voted to keep things the same, you have no right to complain about things being the same.
How to actually change things (just a couple ideas off the top of my head):

If you want the world to be more peaceful, start meditating, stop giving your money to the most violent people on the planet, stop taking in propaganda that makes you think someone else deserves to die because they’re different from you, eat a vegan diet, use non-violent communication, and practice peaceful parenting.

If you want corporations to have less power, stop giving them your money, stop using brand names instead of the actual name of an item (it’s not Kleenex, it’s tissue; it’s not a Band-Aid, it’s a bandage), stop taking in their PROGRAMMING (television, radio, newspapers, magazines).

If you want the Earth to be healthier, to stop “Climate Change”, use transportation not derived from petroleum, stop buying packaged foods, stop giving money to the US government (the #1 polluter on the planet), eat a vegan diet, buy your clothes from the second-hand store (or make them yourself), grow food instead of grass, use as little electricity as possible.

If you want there to be less houseless, hungry, or other not-having-their-needs-met people, start giving people food, clothing, and bedding that you don’t need, grow your own food (you’ll always end up with more than you need), give (time, money, etc) to groups/organizations doing outreach work, stop giving money to the government so they can bomb more places into subsistence living.

Each of these issues the state will try to convince you they can “fix” for you, while generally being the greatest cause of the issue itself. Ever heard the quote “be the change you want to see in the world”? It doesn’t mean “ask someone else to be the change you want to see in the world”, it’s up to each of us to change our own lives, and thus the entire world.